Agile Principles – why do I care?

Are you an Agile shop?  Have you just been exposed to terms such as Scrum, daily scrums, Sprint/Iteration planning, Demo’s, retrospectives and more?  Did you know about the 12 Agile Principles?

Back in 2006 we discussed the implementation plan at our shop and laid out the pros and cons of Agile.  We wrote down the reasons why we should implement Agile and what we hoped to gain from it.  From those early goals came our roll out plan and we did a great job checking back to it for the first year or so.

During an early 2009 Focus Group meeting with key individuals from each role on our Agile/Scrum teams we realized how important it was to continually remind ourselves about the 12 Agile Principles.  You see, we hadn’t kept them as visible and transparent as things such as our Sprint Board, our Mid-Range Planning Board and even our 6-12 month project goals.  The 12 Agile Principles had been “forgotten”.

For those who haven’t seem them in awhile here they are for you review.  Look for future blog posts (Fall 2010) touching on the importance and relevance of each of these Principles.

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Tags: Agile Principles